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At 19:07 the
helicopters flew
over the Pont
Neuf
The Elysian Quartet performed
Karlheinz Stockhausens
Helicopter String Quartet in
Paris, for the 2013 Nuit
Blanche
Theres a string quartet.Theres a helicopter and a pilot for each
of the four musicians. (That makes four helicopters and four
pilots.) Together with their instrument the musicians board the
helicopters. They start playing as soon as the rotor blades begin
to turn. Once all are well up in the air, the string players get to
hear a click-track through the headphones that they are
wearing. They then continue to play their parts along to that
click-track, which is used to synchronize their playing. While
playing, they will only hear themselves, the click track and
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their helicopter. They can not hear the others playing. A video
image of their performance inside the flying helicopter is
transmitted to some location on earth, together with the sound
of their instrumental play mixed with that of the helicopters
rotor blades. Down there a mix is made of the transmitted
signals. The mix is what the audience gets to hear. The video
images of the flying musicians is what the audience gets to see.
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27/10/13 At 19:07 the helicopters flew over the Pont Neuf writing out loud Medium
The Pont Neuf in Paris shortly before the Stockhausen Helikopter-Streichquartetts takeoff
(Saturday October 5th 2013, 18h35)
https://medium.com/something-like-falling/29fc99e133e9 6/13
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A Stock-Ausen helicopter just landed at the Auteuil Hippodrome, October 5th 2013,
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27/10/13 At 19:07 the helicopters flew over the Pont Neuf writing out loud Medium
After a while one then also gets sort of fed up trying to see the
whole circus on the screen as a campy theatre play, no matter
how fun(k)(n)y it is to hear a Frenchman repeatedly pronounce:
Karl Eins Stock Ausen
I dont think it was only me.
When the pilots and the Elysian Quartet finally arrived to make
their grand entre, quite a number of the special guests had
already left. On the screen the salle Dupr looked empty when
the moderator asked the musicians the question that all that
time had been burning on the tip of his tongue.
ow was it? , Franck exclaimed.
After this, also the little audience that was left in the Paris Mint
had no more questions. And outside, on the Pont Neuf, nobody
was asked.
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27/10/13 At 19:07 the helicopters flew over the Pont Neuf writing out loud Medium
No, it was not the string players fault. The Elysian Quartet did
a marvelous job. Judging from the parts that outside on the
Pont Neuf we were able to hear, they performed the piece
masterfully; or whatever: they did it with genuine enthusiasm,
love and a lot of bravura.
So again: what more could one ask of them?
Oh yes, the helicopters. The helicopters did fly over the Pont
Neuf, around 19h07, only three minutes later than originally
announced. But when they did, they were flying so high that
https://medium.com/something-like-falling/29fc99e133e9 10/13
27/10/13 At 19:07 the helicopters flew over the Pont Neuf writing out loud Medium
Around 19h07 the helicopters flew over the Pont Neuf, like an afterthought.
And no, it was not easy. And yes, the performance was plagued
by a number of technical problems, the least of which was a
lighting problem in one of the helicopters. Rather more
dramatic were the glitches that at several points during the
show caused series of loud electronic crackles, followed by
longish interruptions in the transmission of the quartets sound
and video.
F U RTHE R R E AD I N G
Public
Private
Dismiss
At 19:07 the four helicopters flew over the Pont NeufSlightly extended
version of this same article; includes list of all performances of the Helicopter
String Quartet, and embeds the ArteTV video, that now has been put (back)
online (for as long as it will remain available).
via Caroline Carstens on www.harsmedia.com
Suggest a link
https://medium.com/something-like-falling/29fc99e133e9 12/13
27/10/13 At 19:07 the helicopters flew over the Pont Neuf writing out loud Medium
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